OK, that was weird...

[gridlore]

After I got off-line this morning, Kirsten told me that I had a message on the voice mail. It was the clerk of the court, telling me that the case had been settled. This is very odd, since yesterday the parties seemed to be miles apart.



OK, the case involved a woman suing a manufacturer of auto parts for contributing to her cancer, a rare form of mesothelioma. She claimed that asbestos dust from clutches and brakes manufactured by this company got on her father's clothing, clothing she was exposed to on a daily basis for seventeen years. The plaintiff acknowledged that this was hardly the only source of asbestos contact, but that Borg-Warner (the company in question) had some liability for not paying attention to the known risks of asbestos.

Sounds good, right? Except from where I was sitting, the plaintiff was failing to convince anyone that B-W had anything to do with this cancer. Yes, her father used their products - along with parts from dozens of different companies. She, her brother, and a friend all lived together when they were all working at a power plant. At one point she worked in a building that was being renovated; a process that liberated a great amount of asbestos dust. On cross, the defense team showed that none of the studies quoted by the plaintiff's experts involved the type of expose Mrs. Nickels had.. indeed most of them focused on workers in asbestos plants, not mechanics who would blow out a clutch once or twice a month.

In fact, the plaintiff's own witnesses gave such a margin of doubt, and poor preparation that you could see the jury visibly shaking their heads. It didn't help that this lawyer couldn't ask a question once, but had to repeat it several times in different forms. He had to reiterate everything he said to the witnesses. In fact, he seemed to feel that reciting the questions over and over was a good thing.

Get the picture?

All we heard in four days was expert testimony. Nothing directly about the case, so I have to wonder what happened. Perhaps Mrs. Nickels died, perhaps Borg-Warner made a settlement offer, maybe the family saw where this was going and accepted and earlier settlement proposal. Who knows? I'd really like to know.. just the way I am. Oh well.. it's a quick $66 for the trip north.

I'm going to miss the free Cokes and donuts though...

Comments

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Yep! Glad it's done, although I could have used the money and it was fairly interesting stuff.